The Daily Stoic - It is a Lonely Thing | Sweat the Small Stuff

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. It is a lonely thing. Many people knew. They knew they were flirting with danger. They knew he had designs. They knew that these were compromises that violated Rome's traditions. They knew that he would never be satisfied.

Starting point is 00:00:30 But they didn't do anything. They didn't say anything or try to stop it because they weren't sure how it was going to go down. This is the story of the rise of Caesar. It's the story of Octavian, his successor. It's the story of Rome's emperors, competent and cruel alike. It is not the story of Cato, who stood up against it. It is not the story of Thrasia and Helvidius who stood against Nero. It is not the story of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the translator of Epictor.

Starting point is 00:01:02 Pictetus, who was radicalized in the 1850s by the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, seeing clearly the lengths the slave powers would go to. These were lonely positions. They were not at first successful positions either. But that's not what a Stoic thinks about. They think about what is right. They don't ask, is this safe? They say, that's wrong. And they say this loudly and repeatedly, even if it's unpopular, even if they are threatened for it, because that's what courage and justice, two of the most essential stoic virtues, demand of us. That's also the theme of right thing right now, which is my third book in the Stoic Virtue series, which is all about how we do this, how we take those lonely stands, why we take those lonely stands, what

Starting point is 00:01:52 sustains us when we take them. And I think there are obviously some connections to where we are historically, politically, culturally right now. You can grab right thing right now as well as courage is calling, or the whole virtue set, actually, if you want, and learn from some wonderful men and women who chose to step up when it mattered. We should study these people. We should study their actions, and then we should go do the same. When you're a productive person, when you've got a lot on your plate, you don't have time

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Starting point is 00:03:37 Like, people are already on their phones. They're hanging out. They're looking for stuff to do. So why wouldn't business want to meet people where they're at? If you're hoping for people to find your listing or waiting for them to walk into your store, I know a little bit about that, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

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Starting point is 00:04:16 and turn that into real income. People selling on WhatNot sell 10 times more than on other major marketplaces, and that's because you're not just listing products. You're building real connections with buyers. For a limited time, What Not will match your first $150 sold in the first month. You just got to visit Whatnot.com slash sell to start selling. W-H-A-T-N-O-T-com slash sell, What-N-O-T-com slash sell. Sweat, the small stuff. Today's quote comes to us from Zeno. Actually, we don't get this directly from Zeno, but it's passed along to us by Diogenes Lieritus. He says, well-being is realized by small steps, but it is truly no small thing. The famous biographer

Starting point is 00:05:02 Diogenes Laertes attributes this quote to Zeno, but admits that it might also have been said by Socrates, meaning that it might be a quote of a quote of a quote. But does it really matter? Truth is truth. In this case, the truth is one we all know well, that little things add up. Someone is a good person not because they say they are, but because they take good actions. One does not magically get one's act together. It is a matter of many individual choices. It's a matter of getting up at the right time, making your bed, resisting shortcuts, investing in yourself, doing your work, and make no mistake. While the individual action is small, its cumulative impact is not. Think about all the small choices that will roll themselves

Starting point is 00:05:47 out in front of you today. Do you know which are the right way and which are the easy way? choose the right way and watch as these little things add up towards transformation. I did a piece about this not long ago, and it's sort of the basis of the habit challenge that we do for Daily Stoke as well. But George Washington's favorite saying was many Mickels make a muckle, the idea that things add up, that things are cumulative. Mark Cyrillius says that we assemble our life action by action, and he says the benefit of doing it this way is that when you sort of of shrink it down to these individual actions, it's very unlikely that someone will get in your way, right? When Nick Saban talked about the process, if your goal is to win a national championship, and that's all you're focused on, there's so many things that can go wrong between you and that

Starting point is 00:06:39 goal that determine whether you have the success or failure you want and make it, it's so all or nothing, I guess, right? But if you focus instead on like, I'm going to, I'm going to kill it practice today. I am going to throw the hell out of this ball. I am really going to listen to my coach to this podcast episode right now. I'm going to do this thing in front of me. However small it is, I'm going to do it extraordinarily well. That really can't be interfered with and that cumulative impact has the big difference, right? Something can get in the way of you striking it rich in some, you know, scheme or genius. play or breakthrough invention or, you know, whatever you think is going to make your fortune.

Starting point is 00:07:25 But very little can get in the way of you methodically, consistently saving and investing, you know, with a long-term target in mind, right? And that compounding effect is what the Stoics are talking about. I think the other thing that's important to note here, I've always said that I think epiphanies are overrated, if they exist at all, right? this idea of like this big breakthrough moment, the Zen Buddhist talk of Satorai, the idea of like the moment that enlightenment appears, I don't think that that's it. And I think what Zeno is saying is you don't just get there on this singular breakthrough. You get to that, that real well-being,

Starting point is 00:08:09 that smooth flow of life that the Stoics are talking about. You get to enlightenment slowly and surely in these small steps. And although each individual's action is small, the actual place you arrive, the enlightenment that you get to, that's the big thing. Most of the big conclusions or big principles or big ideas that I now base my life around didn't strike me like lightning. It was a slow unveiling, a slow reveal. That's how I got there. And I think that's how you'll get there to today. So focus on the little things you can do right. Focus on habits. Focus on accumulating, focus on systems, focus on breakthroughs, and I think you'll get where you want to go.

The Daily Stoic - It is a Lonely Thing | Sweat the Small Stuff

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